Bodmin Moor Walks – Colliford Lake 03 – 6.42 miles Page 1 Route - subject to revision – Penkestle & Letter Moors, Warleggan, Carburrow Tor, Redhill Downs Interest – Open moorland, farmland, Lantewey, Warleggan village, Carburrow Tor cairns ******************************************************************************************* Useful Information Parking: W side of Colliford Lake dam at 17547/70960. Intermediate Parking: None. Getting There: From A30, 8 miles E of Bodmin, go R past Colliford Lake Park, for 2½ miles, then L for ½ mile. Transport: None known. Refreshments: None. Toilets: None. ******************************************************************************************* Route Directions Colliford Lake to Lantewey – 2.82 miles Start from the Colliford Lake Dam car park at 17609/70952. Turn L (E) on the road downhill, passing on your R an abandoned medieval farmstead. Just after the bottom of the hill, opposite the drive to the waterworks on the L, go R on a tarmac track. This becomes grassy and bears R to cross a clapper bridge by a ford. The track continues for 30 yards to a wooden gate to Penkestle Moor, and continues uphill, rocky and muddy in places. Follow the track and, where the marshy ground on your R ends and you come more into the open, bear R onto the open moorland. ( 0.60 miles ) Your direction across Penkestle Moor is overall WSW, heading uphill for the far end of the hedge on your R, but you will need to loop L to avoid marshy ground. At the end of the hedge, at 0.93 miles, you come to an Altarnun boundary stone and are now on Letter Moor . Looking R you can see the Brown Gelly cairns, Hawk’s Tor, Sharp Tor, Stowe’s Hill and Caradon Hill; L to Black Head on St. Austell Bay and then to Clay Country . Here bear R on to Letter Moor, heading uphill roughly WNW, crossing a boundary bank at 1.07 miles, and passing a large flat possible cairn on your L at 1.11 miles. Brown Willy and Roughtor are now in view half R . You eventually reach a rough track, at the far north-western corner of Letter Moor, leading down to a wooden gate to the lane that heads south to St. Neot. ( 1.37 miles ) Cross the lane and follow signs for Mennabroom Cottages and Tamar downhill on a narrow lane. Pass on your R the drive to Mennabroom at 1.43 miles and the drive to Tamar at 1.48 miles. The lane continues down as hardly more than a track, between overhanging wooded hedges, to a wooden gate on your R at 1.62 miles. Go R through the gate ( no FP sign or WM) , downhill on a wooded sunken track. Just before you come to the garden of Tamar, a wooded track comes in on your R from Mennabroom. Opposite it, go hard L up over a bank and a crude stile ( no WM ) to a ditch and into a field. ( 1.64 miles ) Follow the RH hedge uphill easy to the far R corner. Go through the RH of 2 gaps into a second field. Cross this diagonally downhill on a faint path to a gap to a third field. Follow the LH hedge on a faint path to a gap to a very brackeny fourth field. Follow the LH hedge to a gap to a track coming up from the R. Bear slightly L to a gap to a fifth field at 2.05 miles. Cross this field, leaving a solitary large thorn tree on your R, to a galvanised gate in the far hedge. Follow the LH hedge through scrubby woodland to a grassy track, hedge on L, barns on R, to an open galvanised gate, haybarn on R, and through an open gate to the farmyard at Gazeland Farm. Cross the yard, farm house on your L, to a galvanised gate to a field. ( 2.21 miles ) Bear slightly L across the field to an open galvanised gate to a second field. Cross to a bit of blue electric fence insulation and go over this and over the hedge and a rickety wooden stile to a third field. Cross, just to the L side of the house at Greenwell, to a wooden stile at 2.40 miles. Go through the garden then R and L to a galvanised gate to a track. Follow the track to a wooden gate to a lane (more of a track) at 2.50 miles ( no FP sign ). Go R on the wooded lane which bears L, heading S, up then down to Lantewey (house on your R) at 2.78 miles. Continue on the lane to just after the entrance to Dewey Barns. ( 2.82 miles) Bodmin Moor Walks – Colliford Lake 03 – 6.42 miles Page 2 ******************************************************************************************* Lantewey to Warleggan Church – 0.70 miles Go R ( no FP sign ) through a galvanised gate into a farmyard, passing barns on your L, to a galvanised gate (WM) to a field. Cross the field downhill, heading to the L of a solitary telegraph pole, to where Lantewey Wood on L begins. Go through a galvanised gate (WM disc) at 2.93 miles. Follow a track downhill through Lantewey Wood (beeches), with a stream on your R below, down to a clapper bridge damaged by floods at 290 feet at 2.96 miles. Cross to a galvanised gate and follow a steep rocky track through Barleysplat Woods up to a fork at 3.07 miles . Here the track heading L takes a longer route to Warleggan . Take the R fork and continue up steeply on a rocky track which leaves the woodland but continues with high overgrown wooden hedges, up to a rusty iron gate and on to the lane at Warleggan at 590 feet. ( 3.45 miles ) Go R uphill on the lane, passing attractive cottages on your L, for about 25 yards. After the last cottage, where the lane bends R, go L on grass, passing the former forge on your L, to an odd granite and iron kissing gate leading to a sunken track between wooded hedges. Follow the track, a new house on your R, and go down 3 steps to a wide lane. Go Ron the lane and up 6 steps to a gate to Warleggan Church ( note a cross once used as gate post ) at 670 feet. ( 3.51 miles ) Warleggan Church to Carburrow Tor – 1.22 miles Follow a path round the W side of the church to a graveyard extension and cross this to far L corner to a wooden lift stile to a field. Follow the LH hedge to the middle of three gaps at the end to a second field. Cross diagonally to the far L corner to a badly damaged stile and on to the lane from Warleggan at 3.79 miles. Go R on the lane, passing a track on the L to Trevaddoe and crossing at 3.86 miles a cattle grid on to the scrubby Open Access land of Warleggan Down. Continue on the lane, up to 790 feet. Carburrow Tor is now in view ahead . Follow lane downhill and, at 4.26 miles, go R over a cattle grid on a tarmac drive. Go through an open galvanised gate and continue up to the gate to Whitewalls Farm house. Continue through the garden, leaving the house to your L, to a wooden gate on to the Open Access land of Carburrow Tor at 765 feet. ( 4.42 miles ) Go R, roughly NE, noting the massive ancient boundary bank on your R, uphill easy on a clear grassy track along the southern perimeter. When the track ends, at 4.52 miles, bear L uphill over rough ground, heading roughly NNE towards a lone windswept thorn bush on the horizon. At the thorn you will see the two cairns ahead of you. You reach the second larger one at 15524/70803 at 925 feet. ( 4.73 miles) Panoramic views - St. Bellarmin’s Tor, Glynn Valley spoil heaps, Roughtor, Brown Willy, Colliford Lake, Brown Gelly, Hawk’s Tor, Sharp Tor, Stowe’s Hill, Caradon Hill . Carburrow Tor to Colliford Lake Dam car park – 1.69 miles From the cairns head roughly NE and pick your way through furzy scrub down to the far NE corner of Carburrow Downs and the lane from Warleggan at at 4.97 miles. Go L on the lane, surprisingly you are still on Open Access land , lane bears R and L, becomes uphill, crossing a cattle grid. After about 300 yards you can get off the tarmac and walk on the RH side of the road on Redhill Downs. Pass on your R a private track to Higher Mennabroom at 5.37 miles. After another 100 yards note in a field on your R a substantial triangular standing stone; two other standing stones just down the Higher Mennabroom track, were placed there by farmer . Continue up, with a view forward to the cairns on Brown Gelly, forward R to Caradon Hill, L to Roughtor and Brown Willy , then down to the road to St. Neot at 5.61 miles. Go R on the road, immediately over a cattle grid, and continue, passing on the L entrances to Higher Searle’s (B&B) and Middle Searle’s (Caravan Club site) down to a turning on the L, signed Dozmary Pool and Colliford Dam) at 5.99 miles. Go L on this road back to the car park. ( 6.42 miles ) ******************************************************************************************* Proposed Route Revision Soon after the start, head SSW across Penkestle Moor to Penkestle. Follow a bridleway to the road. Go L and R to a track through Stephengelly and a lane to Lantewey.